Linda Louise Durnall

Durnall was last seen when a suspicious traffic accident happened Oct. 6, 1977. When her car was found a few days later, her personal items were inside. Her family never heard from her.

After more than three decades, Durnall case slows again

Oct. 6, 1977: Linda Durnall is seen at a Texaco at Red Hill Avenue and El Camino Real. The location now holds a Starbucks. She gets into a fight with a man who police now believe was her ex-husband, Phillip LeBeau.

Oct. 9, 1977: Durnall's Volkswagen van is found at the southbound I-5 entrance, with her personal belongings inside and no indications of a struggle. Police begin investigating the case.

2007: The Justice Department contacts Tustin police, telling them that Durnall's family wants to submit DNA samples in case her remains are found. Tustin police have one report about the case.

2011: Tustin police gradually expand their case. They speak with Durnall's and LeBeau's family and friends, and receive documents from a private investigator. They believe LeBeau killed her.

2013: Investigators are out of new leads, and the case has hit a roadblock. They hope two of Durnall's friends, Sara Ferguson and a woman known only as Yoko, can provide some details that might help their case.

For the second time in almost 36 years, investigators are stalled trying to figure out what happened to Linda Louise Durnall.

They are confident she was murdered on a Thursday night in 1977, and they think her now-deceased ex-husband did it.

But now they're trying to find her remains so her family can have closure – and close the most complex cold case the department has handled.

"We're just looking for that one little nugget of information that leads us to her location," said Lt. Tom Tarpley, one of the Tustin Police Department investigators on the case.

Tustin police forgot about Durnall until 2007, when they received a call from the Justice Department with news that her surviving family members wanted to provide samples for a DNA database, making it easier to identify her if remains were ever found. Eventually police found an old report that explained how Durnall was last seen when a suspicious traffic accident happened Oct. 6, 1977. When her car was found a few days later, her personal possessions were inside and there were no signs of a fight.

"It bothered me, what was written on the teletype," said Patti Gallo, an investigator on the case.

Gallo started digging, and the case got bigger, growing from a brief teletype report to hundreds of pages of documents by 2011. Tustin police have spoken with Durnall's family, her ex-husband's old girlfriend and children, as well as the last person known to have seen her alive and her old boyfriend. They found out she had a horrible relationship with her ex-husband, Phillip LeBeau. She showed up at work with black eyes, her home was burglarized, and her new boyfriend's car had sugar put into its gas tank. LeBeau, who died in 2008, is the suspect, police said.

"The ex-husband would clearly be a suspect in this case," Tarpley said. "The hope is that somewhere in the ensuing years since her disappearance that the ex said something to somebody, or that somebody saw something that night off the Ortega Highway that may trigger a memory."

But they're stuck and don't know who might have some crucial missing details. They'll talk to anyone who might be able to help. Police especially want to track down two of Durnall's old work friends: Yoko – they don't know her last name – and Sara Ferguson. But they don't know where to find them.

Durnall and LeBeau met at Orange County International Raceway. She had a job and could afford a car, and she would drive one of her brothers and friends to the races.

"She loved racing anyway," Doug Durnall, her younger brother said. "She didn't take long to make friends. Just walking though the pits, she met Phil."

Durnall did well in school and was into boating and sailing. She water skied until she suffered a shoulder injury. Durnall had a steady job and a place in Santa Ana.

Doug Durnall said LeBeau initially seemed like a good guy and easygoing – and treated his sister well. Gallo said he worked odd jobs, but nothing too steady. He often lived beyond his means and got into mischief, but no serious trouble.

After about six months of dating, Durnall and LeBeau got married. She was his third wife and the new stepmother to his children. But the marriage turned bad pretty quickly, Doug Durnall said.

"I think Phil just wanted to have a wedding band on her. I know that later she was just not that interested in it. ... The things she would tell me about abuse, I knew it was the wrong person. ... When she said she was leaving him, that didn't bother me at all," Doug Durnall said.

After about four years, the couple divorced. Durnall moved out, and she got a new boyfriend – a co-worker at Addressograph Multigraph Corp., where she was an office clerk. LeBeau got a new girlfriend, but, based on a recent interview with this woman, it seemed he never got over his ex-wife, Gallo said.

The two had little contact, and there was animosity after the divorce. LeBeau broke into his ex's apartment and took sentimental items from her new relationship, while the tires of her new boyfriend's car were slashed and sugar was poured into his gas tank, Gallo and Doug Durnall said.

The day she disappeared, she and LeBeau were supposed to meet at Love's Restaurant, which is now a Denny's at 1571 El Camino Real, for LeBeau to give $300 to Durnall to pay back damage to her boyfriend's car. Afterward she was at a Texaco, at what's now a Starbucks, at Red Hill Avenue and El Camino Real. A witness said he saw Durnall inside her Volkswagen van arguing with a man. Then, for some reason, she backed her van into the witness's car, got out of the van and ran away. The man, who investigators now believe was LeBeau, chased after her and brought her back. Durnall then went to talk to the owner of the car she hit. Sensing something was wrong, the owner gave Durnall his contact information in case she needed to talk.

And that was the last time she was seen.

Three days later, police found her van at the entrance to southbound I-5 with all of her personal possessions still inside, and her family never heard from her – signs that she didn't run off and start a new life. Police later learned LeBeau returned home much later than he was expected that night, wearing a different set of clothes and wet. He told investigators he was reminiscing at the house off Ortega Highway where he and his ex-wife used to live, and that he stopped for a swim.

Linda Louise Durnall disappeared in November 1977 and has not been seen since and is believed to be murdered. Police are investigating the cold case. COURTESY OF DOUG DURNALL, COURTESY OF DOUG DURNALL
Linda Louise Durnall disappeared in November 1977 and has not been seen since and is believed to be murdered. Police are investigating the cold case. COURTESY OF DOUG DURNALL, COURTESY OF DOUG DURNALL
Linda Durnall and Phillip LeBeau at their wedding. Police believe that LeBeau killed Durnall in 1977. COURTESY OF TUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT, COURTESY OF TUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT
Linda Durnall and Phillip LeBeau at their wedding. Police believe that LeBeau killed Durnall in 1977. COURTESY OF TUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT, COURTESY OF TUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT
Police believe Linda Louise Durnall, on right, was killed by her ex-husband in 1977. They hope to track down her friend, known only as Yoko, on left, to speak to her about Durnall's life. COURTESY OF TUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT, COURTESY OF TUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT
Major Crimes Team Investigator Patti Gallo flips through the file she has compiled from old police records and photos from family and friends for the investigation into the 1977 disappearance of Linda Louise Durnall. KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Major Crimes Team Investigator Patti Gallo, of the Tustin Police Department, points towards the southbound entrance to Interstate 5, where Linda Louise Durnall's car was found nearby. Gallo is working on the 1977 cold case and is seen standing in front of the Starbucks at the corner of Red Hill Avenue and El Camino Real in Tustin, which was formerly a Texaco gas station, where Durnall was last seen. KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Major Crimes Team Investigator Patti Gallo, of the Tustin Police Department, is working on the 1977 cold case about Linda Louise Durnall. Gallo is standing in front of the Starbucks at the corner of Red Hill Avenue and El Camino Real in Tustin, which was formerly a Texaco gas station, where the victim was last seen. Durnall's car was found near the southbound entrance to Interstate 5 (seen in background). KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Starbucks at the corner of Red Hill Avenue and El Camino Real in Tustin, which was formerly a Texaco gas station, was the last place Linda Louise Durnall was seen in 1977 before going missing. Durnall's car was found near the southbound entrance to Interstate 5 (seen in background). KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Major Crimes Team Investigator Patti Gallo flips through the file she has compiled from old police records and photos from family and friends for the investigation into the 1977 disappearance of Linda Louise Durnall (pictured in foreground). KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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